Hickory Nut Mountain on Vaccine Day

After having the first shot of Mr. Moderna injected into my arm in Rutherfordton, I decided to stop at an Overlook south of my house. The clarity of the air made for the perfect photo op, with 3,100 foot Hickory Nut Mountain dominating the northern horizon. This is one of those long ridges that prevented the Cherokee and early settlers from having easy movement east and west along the Eastern Blue Ridge Escarpment. Even today, few roads exist on and around the mountain, making the area a true wilderness, with many unexplored regions.

My house sits in a valley at 1,200 feet at the base of the mountain, just above the line of pines in this image. As far as I have learned, most of the area is owned by Weyerhaeuser and Georgia-Pacific, but so far, no large scale logging has been carried out. There are no public lands anywhere on or around Hickory Nut Mountain.